Friday, 21 June 2013

EXIT: MADS MIKKELSEN ON THE RUN, MORE FILM AT NORDICANA

When
I wrote about the Danish film A Hijacking I suggested that the
theme of business ethics and its relation to social morality was part
of many recent Scandinavian films, among them Exit. In A
Hijacking the conflict was between a businessman's social
responsibility to the crew of his vessel and his ingrained desire to
'win' the negotiation. As it happened, I had just seen Exit
earlier the same day at the Nordicana festival, and though the two
films weren't part of a double-feature, the connection was obvious.

Exit
begins Mads Mikklesen explaining, in voice-over, how negotiating
is all about knowing your opponent's weakness, and that every
opponent has one. The movie opens with Mikklesen, as Thomas
Skepphult, and his partner in a firm called Nova Investment forcing
out the man whose family's firm it had been, because he has done
something that crossed their ethical boundary while completing a
deal with another firm. The ousted man, Morgan Nordenstrole, goes
back to his office and blows his head off with a shotgun.

Seven
years later, Nova is trying to exit that deal, and cash in
their profits, but another investor, the super slick Gabriel Mork,
holds them to ransom on theexit. At the same time, Thomas' mentor and
partner, Wilhelm, announces he wants to retire, and shows Thomas a
hidden compartment in his safe, in which is a tape which Thomas
believed had been destroyed. That night, Wilhelm is murdered, and
because his death would save Thomas millions on the price of buying
him out, Thomas becomes the top suspect and is arrested. But while
trying to contact his lawyer, someone else gets on the line, and
Thomas realises he's been set up, and nothing is as it seems.

On
the one hand, Exit is a complicated, sometimes repetitive,
innocent man on the run film, in the tradition of Tell No One or
Headhunters, and it wouldn't surprise me if it hadn't hadn't
provided some inspiration for Jo Nesbo's tale. As with the Harlan
Coben novel (and the French film) Thomas is lucky to have a
professional to call upon for help, in his case a cousin who is some
sort of security operative, and helped also by the insane
incompetence of the Swedish police. Detective Malm, played with a
wonderful sneer of suspicion by Ia Langhammer, has decided the case
from the first, and after that point, no amount of killing, shooting,
fire, or kidnap can distract the cops' attention. Which is great if
you're an accused murderer on the run. Especially one played by
Mikklesen, who is fast becoming the most sado-masochistic character
in movies: public-school boy perverse torturing James Bond (and
getting his come-uppins, so to speak) in Casino Royale,
getting beaten to a pulp more here than in The Hunt, bloodier
than Valhalla Rising.

It
also never seems to occur to the police to see whether Thomas is
still running his business, which he is trying to do using his
assistant Fabian von Klerking as a go-between. Eventually Fabian
(Alexander Skarsgard) has to go to Mork (whose name, at least in
English, suggests murk and angel at the same time; John Rabaeus,
playing him, is excellent, and looks a bit like a classier version of
William Forsythe) and Mork, it turns out, did the nasty to Fabian's
father. But he overcomes his distaste out of loyalty to Thomas, and
this impresses Mork. It also suggests that there is something about
the aristocracy, the old Sweden, as signaled by Fabian, that is not
only worth admiring but has been lost. Although I was wondering if
the burned out 'P' in the 'Prince' sign in the inevitable seedy bar
Thomas is forced to visit was some sort of comment on the Swedish
royal family.

As I said, the
plot involves some repetition (here review imitates life), and a good deal of twisting. Thomas
repeats the same sort of gambit a few times, and indeed there are
two escapes via powerboat, which is stretching it for any movie not
set in Hong Kong. Questions of loyalty and trust are paramount, from
Wilhelm's wife Louise, to Thomas' own wife Anna (played with some
relish by Kirsti Eline Torhaug). Samuel Froler is excellent as the
psychopathic villain, and even better is his henchman Ahmed (Hassan
Brijay) who might have walked out of one of the Pusher films

Which
is one of the strongest points of Exit. At times it has that
grainy darkness of 70s American crime films, and which the Pusher
films share, but it is also very carefully one of the most noirish
films to come from the sadly misnamed Nordic Noir pantheon. It is
exceedingly dark and shadowy, and for most of the film the only light
comes in scenes set in Thomas' home, where the sunlight streams in
over water and through picture windows. But mostly it takes place in
places where natural light never shines, or at night, or both, and
that sets the mood. When the film reaches its visceral climax, it's
full-scale Fall of the House Of Usher, which I found symbolic.
Director Peter Lindmark has a nice visual command which helps give
depth to what otherwise would be just a pacy thriller with a few too
many longeurs. And when the ultimate betrayal is revealed in the
final twist, it too is a shadowy picture in a reflection of a dark
room. It doesn't get more noirish than that.

Exit is available on DVD from Arrow Films on 8 July

Note: This review will also appear at Crime Time (www.crimetime.co.uk)

NFL WEEKLY COVERAGE

You can follow me and the NFL with my Friday Morning Tight End column at Patreon. Weekly during the season, giving perspective on the week's action on and off the field and picking every game. Follow this link to find out how to become a patron and join up.